I'm teaching myself pixel art and decided to start at 16x16. I took a stab at using shades of a color for lighting. But I know that I could improve this. I'd appreciate some advice on the pallet, lighting, and any other advice you might have.

Did my own spin on the cloaked guy. Not as a demonstration or anything, but just because I wanted to.

Right now your lighting doesn't really add anything to the sprites and your palette is a bit dull and lacks contrast. Try experimenting with how lighting can be used to show your character and give them added depth or life.

I'm not really an expert on this sort of thing so take anything I say with a grain of salt.

i know this isn't coloring advice, but when you're going 16x16 i'd recommend not trying to keep realistic proportions. something like is more recognizable as a knight at that resolution (that's 16x16 too)

Don't keep the same material one hue when shading it, it looks dull and unnatural. the light source pretty much never has the same colour as the ambient light. For example, in daylight the shadow is mostly lit by the blue sky while the directly lit side is lit mostly by direct sunlight (rule of thumb: cold shadows, warm highlights)

And metallic surfaces aren't a flat grey, they reflect everything around them, so get some different hues on the knight guy as well, you can generally go pretty crazy actually

Don't keep the same material one hue when shading it, it looks dull and unnatural. the light source pretty much never has the same colour as the ambient light. For example, in daylight the shadow is mostly lit by the blue sky while the directly lit side is lit mostly by direct sunlight (rule of thumb: cold shadows, warm highlights)

And metallic surfaces aren't a flat grey, they reflect everything around them, so get some different hues on the knight guy as well, you can generally go pretty crazy actually